A WOMEN’S prison in Kent whose most notorious inmate was the late child killer Myra Hindley will no longer house female offenders.

Cookham Wood prison, at Rochester, is to change its function to a dedicated Young Offenders Institution (YOI) for men aged under 18. The new centre will have a capacity of 160 inmates.

The planned change is designed to ease the shortage of prison places for male offenders in the South East.

The Home Office had in May discounted any move to change the use of Cookham Wood to a male prison.

A letter to Medway Council said it would take significant alterations to accommodate male prisoners.

It also stated that a recently-built specialist unit for juvenile girls could not be relocated anywhere else in the country.

Less than three months later, however, the new Ministry of Justice said Cookham Wood would have to close.

David Hanson, Minister of State for Justice, said: “Cookham Wood represents our best option to ensure more young men from London and the South East are being held in Young Offender Institutions nearer to their families.

“I have asked that a dedicated team work with the women at Cookham Wood to arrange transfers to other prisons that are best suited to meet their offending behaviour and rehabilitative needs.”

The Ministry of Justice declined to say which prisons the women would be moved to.

The new Cookham Wood YOI will sit in between Rochester YOI, which houses young offenders between the ages of 18 and 21 and Rebound Secure Training Centre for 12- to 16-year-old criminals.

Rochester YOI is presently being expanded to house more inmates.

But a Ministry of Justice spokesman said the expansion of Rochester YOI was not linked with the change of function at Cookham Wood.

* Myra Hindley died from natural causes in 2002. At the time she was in inmate at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk.